Who's the Boss?

If we want to lead people to Christ we need to learn how to lead. And before we try and lead others, we must first learn to lead ourselves. Leading yourself is the preparation part of learning to become a great leader. preparation takes time. Jesus started his ministry by not eating for 40 days. Fasting is a great tool to putting you in charge. When we don’t eat, we are sending a message to our body that it is not the boss of us. Your body has lots of different desires, but you need to show it whose in charge. Your mind as well likes to think about things it just shouldn’t be thinking about. Once again, you must remember that you are in charge, and you can tell your mind what to think. Sometimes your emotions might tell you your in a bad mood, and that just makes everyone around miserable. But remember, you’re the boss. Tell your emotions to be submitted to God’s word. This is learning how to lead yourself. After Jesus fasted he was tempted. But Jesus was prepared, and he didn’t listen to the devil. Instead, he quoted the word. So call in your body, your mind, and your emotions into your office for a meeting, tell them your in charge now. As you follow Christ, then lead!

Jesus Said

Jesus said
Listen, what goes into a mans mouth does not make him unclean, what comes out of his mouth is what makes him unclean. What kind of stuff comes out of your mouth. Do you find yourself saying things like “I hate that guy”, or “did you here what you know who did?”. Or do you sometimes expect the worst with your words, and say things like “OH Bad stuff always happens to me” or “I’m a moron”, or “I can’t do it”. Maybe what comes out of your mouth isn’t the truth, especially when your trying to come up with an excuse to keep you out of trouble. “officer, you must be mistaken, I wasn’t speeding” Be careful of what you say. The word says that out of the abundance of a mans heart the mouth speaks. Change your confession, that is, change the way you talk. You think quite often that you are only describing your circumstances in life, but the truth is, you are creating your circumstances with your words. Instead of saying “I feel down and depressed”, say, “I’m getting happy.” If you want things to get better, you start by speaking it. Say good things about yourself, your situations, your friends, and your God, and watch your life take a turn for the better.

Matt 28:19 Go and make disciples of all nations

Hmm, what to do today. What to wear? What time do I have to get up? And I have to make disciples of all nations to? Our lives are way to busy for us to stop and think about making disciples of all nations. Attempting to change the world, that is a bit overwhelming, might even seem impossible. Lucky, nothing is impossible to God. You can change your world, by starting in YOUR world, that is, the people and places you are around. Start there. So how do you reach the people in your world? Start by inviting those people to church. Which means, ofcourse, you have to have a church. And begin to pray. Its very important to Pray for your family members and friends. God will make himself just as real to those you know as he has made himself real to you. Also, don’t be afraid to tell your story, how did Jesus change you? We are all concerned about our unsaved family and friends, but it’s not enough to want to share the gospel with others, you’ve gotta do something about. I’m inspiring you to come up with a plan of action, and take action. It shouldn’t just be something you think about in passing, it should be part of your daily focus.

Invest in your mind!

How important is your education? Should you continue on in college, or go back to college? God has given you a mind, but its up to you to use it, and to invest in it. In the parable of talents Jesus tells of 3 people each given different amounts of money. The two who invested the money were rewarded, but the one who did nothing with it, the one who buried it, got in trouble. God has given us a mind, and we need to invest in it, and take care of it. Moses was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses, having been the only Israelite not raised as a slave in Egypt, but raised by the Pharoah’s daughter in the palace, was probably highly educated. The apostle Paul was highly educated, having spent his life studying under the great Hebrew Philospher Gamaliel. (acts 22). If he had not known how to read and write both the languages Greek and Hebrew, he would not have been able to write so much of the new testament. But his learning put him in position to proclaim Jesus Christ’s righteousness to a people yet unborn. So whatever you decide, college, medical school, or bible school, your brain is a valuable tool. Don’t ignore a tool God has given you.

The Devil Just Needs You to Believe One Lie

Genesis 3: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals –That’s right. The devil is sneaky. And he starts talking Eve into eating the fruit that they were not to eat. And the devil convinces her, saying “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you be like God, knowing good and evil” Hmm. First of all if a snake ever starts talking to you, don’t listen. Adam and Eve were made in God’s likeness and image, so the serpent was using God’s truth and making it into a lie. To win the Devil just needed Eve to believe this one lie.; “You can be like God”. And that’s what makes the devil so sneaky. He just needs to get you to believe one lie. He just wants you to think its okay to get just a little drunk. Or he might tell you … that hey, the bible doesn’t say not to do meth. Or he might try and convince you your husband doesn’t love you anymore. Eve eats the fruit, and gives some to Adam, and it cost mankind 4000 years of bondage. Remember, if temptation comes, ask yourself, is that crafty devil trying to trap me? Cause the answer is yes.

You Are Not an Accident

You ever wonder if you being here were an accident or some sort of random event? Eph 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. First of all you need to know something. You are not an accident. You were destined to be here at this time, and God has a specific purpose in mind for you. Before God created the world he planned your existence. You have been made holy and blameless as a result of the sacrifice Jesus made for us, taking all sin, past and future, to the cross. When God sees you, he sees righteousness. You can boldly stand before the Lord without shame. Psalms 139:15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to pass. You are not the result of chance, like some sort of pull on a slot machine. What you do with the days that have been ordained for you, well that’s up to you. God has stuff for you to do, but you’ve gotta step up to it.

Fear

Jesus is out walking on the water – well that may not surprise you anymore, but it freaked out the disciples. They got scared. So Jesus says..”Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” There are a lot of things a person could be afraid of. Jesus is saying “Don’t be afraid” Well Peter steps out into the water and tries walking on it. But when he realized that people don’t naturally walk on water – he got scared, he began to sink. Jesus caught him. Jesus will catch us when we are sinking, but Jesus plan is for us to have no fear of this world. Instead we are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Your understanding is that people sink in water. With God all things are possible. But Fear can mess it up. Since fear starts with our thoughts, then we can stop fear by taking our thoughts captive. Phillipians 4:8 “Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things.” So if fear is coming at you take control of your mind. Instead say something like “The Lord is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him will I trust.”

Let's Talk About Church

Let’s talk about church.
Eph 1:22 God placed all things under Jesus his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, his body. So Jesus is in charge of the church. This tells me that church is incredibly important to God. Can’t I just have church at home, I mean, going to church can be such a pain…And maybe I don’t always like everything I see going on at church…Well what does Jesus have to say about it? After all, he’s head of the church.. John 15:5 If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. How do we remain in Christ except to be connected to his body, which is the church. Going to church is a charge of inspiration from God’s word for personal growth. It makes us better. Pastors can get from God a message that is specifically for the congregation. What an advantage those who attend church have in life. When you attend a church there might be people and things that you don’t agree with. I wonder if that’s Jesus way of teaching you how to love unconditionally, how to serve, how to forgive, and how not to be judgemental. Remember, it’s like a family, and who doesn’t fight a little bit with there brothers and sisters?

Giving God the Best

When you go to church, what do you bring God? In Malachi 1: God is kinda ticked off cuz the gifts the people were bringing to him were the left overs and garbage of the land. For instance, instead of giving to God the best of their herds, they were giving blind and crippled animals. I think sometimes we go through our garage, find all the stuff we were gonna throw away, and give it to God as a gift. To God’s temple we need to offer our very best. Our best service, and our best treasure. What do you value? When the Israelites got to the promised land they gave the Lord all the plunder from the first city they took. We should give to God first, not last. You see, the more we put God first, the more he will put you first. But we don’t give to get, we teach ourselves to give to God our best, so that money will begin to have less and less control over us, and we begin to control it. We cannot serve both God and money. So the next time you are giving a gift to God, ask yourself, would I give this gift to someone I really love. Is this my best? Would I like getting this as a gift?